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Houston County opposes AMC’s state-wide redesign proposal
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By Charlie Warner
Argus News Editor
“Shock, outrage and disbelief” are three adjectives to describe the Houston County Commissioners’ reactions to the Association of Minnesota Counties Minnesota 10 Point Redesign Plan.
The AMC plan was created in response to Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s proposal to cut state aid to cities and counties by an additional $250 million for 2010.
The county board reviewed the document during the Feb. 23 meeting. The following are AMC’s 10 points:
• Reduce the size of the State Highway Patrol by 50 percent and redeploy the patrol to provide accident reconstruction services, investigation of major crimes and management of state weight standards. Counties and cities would take over the road patrol function. By taking over the road patrol, communities would have an incentive to explore going to single police forces and reducing administrative over burden. The state savings for the biennium would be $75 million.
• Have counties take over the responsibility for state highways except for the freeways. Allow counties the flexibility to set plowing standards that could use part time workers for both summer maintenance and snowplowing tasks. This first step would allow a further consideration of additional governance opportunities on how best to preserve and enhance Minnesota’s highway and transit infrastructure. The state savings for the biennium would be last least $200 million.
• Eliminate county program aid and certain other funding and enact a .5 percent (half-percent) county sales tax for all 87 counties, but counties would have an “opt-out” option on this tax. Some portion of the tax would be contributed to a disparity pool to be used for equalization purposes amongst counties. The state would save an estimated $600 million per biennium and counties could raise an estimated $640 million per biennium.
• Adopt a state-wide community corrections/probation program. This would reduce state expenditures by $100 million and increase state CCA grants to counties by $80 million for the biennium. This would reduce the three state probation systems to a single system. Counties would self organize in community correction joint powers districts. This would be a $20 million net savings to the state.
• Adopt Minnesota court reform to:
- Allow judicial reciprocity for arraignments and other early court proceedings;
- Expand court jurisdiction to allow for multiple prosecutions involving the same defendant;
- Establish a county magistrate/hearing officer system to adjudicate certain civil and minor offenses in each county;
-Allow all persons facing criminal sanctions equal access to diversion programs implemented at the county level;
-Expand and allow the use of interactive televideo technology in court whenever possible;
-Give counties the authority to determine attorneys in CHIPS cases.
This proposal would reduce the need for additional revenue in the court system, reduce the work load for judges and reduce county jail expenditures. State savings would be $40 million.
• Based upon the results of existing chemical dependency (CD) response pilot programs, counties would be allowed to begin CD redesign if they so choose.
• Adopt a uniform state-wide planning and zoning law that combines the best portions of city/town planning and zoning statutes and county planning and zoning statutes.
• Suspend all county maintenance of efforts for three years, place a moratorium on new state mandates and enact a five year sunset review on all existing mandates.
• Place a five year moratorium on the implementation of new state rules or commissioner orders unless they are subject to federal rulemaking or to conform to federal law.
• Allow a new, expedited process for counties to consider and adopt home rule charters at their discretion. Home rule charter would allow a county to do anything unless prohibited by the state. It does not prohibit the state from mandated counties to do things.
“We didn’t have any input into this plan at all,” County Financial Director Casey Bradley noted. “While there are a few good points in this, all-in-all, it’s not going to help out this county.”
“This is really bogus,” Commissioner Dave Corcoran said. “If this is what AMC is doing for us, I think we should drop out of the association!”
All of the commissioners agreed the bulk of the proposal would not be beneficial to the county and by general consensus went on record as opposed to it. A letter will be drafted and sent to AMC and also to area legislators stating that Houston County opposes the plan.
Regional dispatch center?
Commissioner Jack Miller and Chief Deputy Scott Yeiter reported on the meeting they attended with representatives from Fillmore, Winona, Wabasha, Dodge and Goodhue counties on a proposed regional dispatch center.
The state is looking at ways to save money by consolidating dispatch services and a six-county commission is being formed to review the feasibility of a regional dispatch.
“Right now we’re just looking at what we might be able to save in equipment purchases and manpower,” Miller said.
“I think six counties might be too large an area, but with the technology changing all the time, combining several counties might be a possibility,” Yeiter added.
You can contact Charlie Warner at
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